This piston is out of Mark's 92 Lebaron Convertable, 2.5 Turbo 1, Auto, running a Garett T03 Turbo with No intercooler. The Turbo XS Boost Controler was set for 12/13 psi, but there had been a problem with the wastegate and had overboosted occasionally. This car was driven as a daily driver and has been babied since the wastegate problem. On 1/12/06 the car stalled pulling into a resturant. Just (seconds) prior to stalling it was making some pecking noise similiar to lifter but different. He had the car towed to the garage where he works and we started checking it out that evening. When he pulled #1 Plug he found the inside insulator gone and the tip mashed up against the bottom of the plug. Checked comperssion and got zero on #1. Pulled the valve cover and found the intake roller rocker on #1 laying loose. Re-installed the rocker and re-checked compression and still got zero on #1. Started tearing everything down and also found that the turbo is locked up. We haven't dissassembled the turbo yet, but it is pretty good bet that a chunk of the piston is in there. We will be doing a true TD fix, and hone the cylinder, install another O/E piston, polish the roughed up area on the head, and (instead of the Garett T3), we will put the original Mitsu Turbo back on.
Final Repair: As seen in the pics the piston was bad. Looks like there was some detonation either before or after the section broke. The head was removed and found that the #1 Exhaust Valve was bent approx. .030". Had another intake and exhaust valve ground to clean-up and lapped the existing valve seats on #1. Did not find any BIG chunks anywhere. However, we did find a small handfull of BB size (a few maybe a little larger than BB's) pellets INSIDE the INTAKE Manifold. The more we shook or bounced the manifold, the more pellets came out. We decided that it wasn't worth the chance to use, so when we re-installed the intake manifold, we a different one. The T03 Garett Turbo free'd up with a slight twist of a wrench on the shaft. Spun freely with no bent fins, so we re-installed the same turbo when we put it back together. By using spare parts laying around, the total repair ended up costing approx. $130.00 and the car was down for 10 Days.
One noteworthy incident when we fired it up after the repair; It ran rough! VERY ROUGH! It woulnd't hardly idle at all. When rev'd, it would rev fine, but it wouldn't idle. So, we checked codes and got 12 (Battery Disconnect), 22 (Coolant Sensor), 24 (TPS), 25 (AIS), 15 (Speed Distance Sensor) & 45 (Overboost, code had been stored previous to breakdown) (i.e. ALL sensors malfunctioning?????). So, Mark hooks up the DRB III. All sensor operating within spec.! WTH?? So, he clears the codes, shuts it off and then re-starts it. Then it PURRS like a kitten. Smooth as can be. CONCLUSION: Battery was left connected during repair and the car was pushed in and out of the shop when not being worked on. When moving it, the key was turned on to unlock the steering wheel and tranny. When the key was turned on with the head off, all sensors were diconnected and a code was stored in the SBEC II. The car went back on the road 1/22/06 and runs fine.